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The Old Barracks Association and the State of New Jersey:

• In 1758, barracks were built at Trenton to house 300 British soldiers during the winters of the French and Indian War, by order of the New Jersey Legislature. An Officers House was attached the following year. This barracks was occupied by Loyalists and Hessian soldiers prior to Washington’s victory at the Battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776. Later, the Continental Army used it to inoculate the army against smallpox ˜ part of the first successful mass inoculation.
• After Trenton was named the state capital in 1790, a portion of the disused Barracks was torn down so that Front Street could be continued to the site of the planned New Jersey State House.
• In 1902, local patriotic women incorporated as the Old Barracks Association, raised the $6,000 necessary, and purchased the South Wing of the Old Barracks and its attendant property to save it from the wrecking ball. With the support of local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames, they collected and borrowed antique furnishings and were, by 1903, able to open their doors to the public as the Old Barracks Museum.
• Preliminary plans for a State House Park involved tearing down many structures east of the State House, including the remainder of the Barracks North Wing and Officers House. The Old Barracks Association approached the New Jersey Legislature in an effort to have it saved, rejoined to the South Wing, and restored.
• In 1914, the Old Barracks Association deeded the property to the State of New Jersey. Under this Deed, the Association and the State became partners in the operation of the museum. The Association retained control and management of the museum, while the State permanently committed to provide annually "sufficient funds . . . to preserve and maintain" the museum "as an historical landmark and repository."
• During 1915 and 1916, the missing 40 foot section of the Barracks was rebuilt and the entire Barracks and Officers House restored to what was believed to be its 18th Century appearance.
• The Legislature formalized its commitment through a statute enacted in 1917 that obligates the State to provide sufficient funds as needed by the Association to support the museum. In 1946, the Attorney General confirmed that the 1917 Act requires New Jersey to appropriate each year enough money "for the maintenance, repair and administration" of the museum.
• At both the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition in 1926 and the New York Worlds Fair in 1939, the New Jersey pavilions were full scale, stone replicas of the Old Barracks Museum.
• Over the subsequent 93 years, the Old Barracks Museum has been an outstanding example of a successful public/private cooperative effort. Both political parties have made much of the fact that there should be more such efforts.
• The annual appropriation (which has come via a line item in the State’s budget since 1917), has taken the place of an endowment or trust fund. This stable base of funding enables the not-for-profit, 501c3 Old Barracks Association to raise funds from private, corporate, and foundation sources, as well as “earn” income from admissions, Museum shop sales, special programs, etc.
• The State appropriation level for the Old Barracks Museum has remained essentially flat at $375,000 for more that 16 years, since FY94. During that time, the Old Barracks Association has testified on its own behalf for funding only once, in 2007, after its appropriation was cut by 20%, forcing a two-month closure and the laying off the entire staff, including the Executive Director. All growth over the span of the appropriation has been achieved through intensified efforts at fund raising by the Old Barracks Association.
• To substitute for the flat $375,000 appropriation, a $7.5 million endowment earning a consistent 5% annual return would be necessary.

What We Are:

• One of the State’s three (along with Morristown National Historical Park and Ft Lee Historic Site) most professional and effective teaching sites of New Jersey’s critical role in the American Revolution and one of the finest in the nation.
• New Jersey’s only historic site teaching about its critical participation in the French and Indian War, the first global “War for Empire”.
• One of only seven institutions in New Jersey to be fully accredited by the American Association of Museums and the only historic site among the seven.
• We consistently serve on average 20,000 students each year in curriculum- supportive, formal programs at our museum, attended by schools from every county in the State (Sussex to Cape May). No historic site or History museum in New Jersey serves more.
• We are an economic generator via our role in the revitalization of downtown Trenton and our leading role in the statewide heritage tourism efforts of the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area and the New Jersey Heritage Tourism Task Force.
• We played a critical role in Senator Diane Allen’s (Rep, Edgewater Park) efforts to establish the New Jersey’s Women’s Heritage Trail, with emphasis on the unique role played by the patriotic women who saved the building and created the Old Barracks Association in 1902.

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